A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate"
(Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

CIA wins fight to keep MPs in dark on rendition

American intelligence agencies including the CIA and the FBI have won a court ruling allowing them to withhold evidence from British MPs about suspected UK involvement in "extraordinary rendition" – the secret arrests and alleged torture of terror suspects.

A judge in Washington DC granted permission for key US intelligence bodies, including the highly sensitive National Security Agency, to exploit a loophole in US freedom of information legislation which bars the release of documentation to any body representing a foreign government.

Downing Street underlined the gravity of the torture claims yesterday when it urged police to interview former Labour ministers as part of an investigation into the alleged rendition and torture of a Libyan critic of Muammar Gaddafi. Jack Straw, who was Foreign Secretary at the time and is expected to be interviewed by detectives, denies any complicity in rendition – as have his successors at the Foreign Office. Whitehall officials have made clear that the intelligence services believe their operations "were in line with ministerially authorised government policy".

The CIA's court victory over British MPs came after the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition – which comprises about 50 backbench MPs and peers – submitted a slew of information requests to US intelligence agencies as part of its investigations into the extent of British complicity in rendition and torture. The US agencies were trying to avoid official embarrassment on both sides of the Atlantic by using a narrow legal exemption to prevent the disclosure of critical papers, said Tony Lloyd, a Labour MP and the vice-chairman of the group. He called the judgment "disappointing".

The Americans' success in resisting the MPs' inquiries will fuel the controversy over the cover-up of the role said to have been played by British intelligence operatives in spiriting away fugitives and suspects with ministerial approval to secret jails and authoritarian regimes, in particular to Muammar Gaddafi's Libya.

Files discovered by The Independent last summer in the abandoned Tripoli offices of Gaddafi's intelligence chief showed a close working relationship with Britain. Claims also emerged this week that British agents initiated the extraordinary rendition of a Libyan couple, Fatima Bouchar and Abdelhakim Belhaj, to Tripoli, where they were imprisoned and, in the case of Mr Belhaj, allegedly tortured. A letter from Sir Mark Allen, then head of counter-terrorism at MI6, to Moussa Koussa, the head of Libyan intelligence, said: "The intelligence about Abu'Abd Allah [a nom de guerre for Mr Belhaj] was British."

MPs investigating the rendition scandal, led by Tory backbencher Andrew Tyrie, requested information in 2008 from America's spy agencies on 43 separate topics. These "focused on various aspects of the US and the UK's involvement in extraordinary rendition, secret detention, coercive interrogation of suspected terrorists and the sources of information about alleged terrorist plots", according to court documents.

The requests, drafted by Mr Tyrie's office, included details on the "identity, location and treatment" of detainees. Later, MPs also cited a statement from David Miliband when he was Foreign Secretary, in which he admitted that two rendition flights landed in 2002 on the island of Diego Garcia, the British territory in the Indian Ocean leased as an airbase to the Americans.

Initially, the FBI responded by providing some documents but then, along with bodies including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defence, refused any disclosure and cited a get-out clause in the US freedom of information law which exempts intelligence agencies from disclosing documents to any "non-domestic government entity" or its representatives.

More than two years after MPs submitted their case, a US judge sided with the intelligence agencies and said British parliamentarians were indeed representatives of a foreign government – despite the MPs arguing that they were independent legislators and not members of the executive or Government.

Mr Lloyd told The Independent: "It suggests this material is not really something that affects national security or intelligence, but is being withheld to prevent the embarrassment of officials."

Torture politics: No 10 accuses Labour

Downing Street yesterday urged police to interview former Labour ministers in the investigation into the 2004 rendition and torture of a Libyan critic of Muammar Gaddafi.

Abdelhakim Belhaj is suing the UK Government, security forces, and Sir Mark Allen, a former director at MI6. Jack Straw, who was Foreign Secretary, has denied any complicity in rendition – a denial repeated by later Foreign Office ministers, including David Miliband. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said yesterday police should pursue every angle, including what previous ministers knew about the alleged rendition, and when they learned it.

Asked if police should interview former ministers, he replied: "They need to follow the evidence wherever it takes them."

Asked if ministers should consent to be questioned, he said: "The police should follow the evidence wherever it takes them and they should be allowed to do that."

About Me - jailhouselawyer

John Hirst
Hull, East Yorkshire, GB
"Who is John Hirst?" the Sun online questioned the day after the UK lost its appeal to the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR in the prisoners votes case. The profile was not very informative nor flattering. But, I don't like the Sun either so we are quits. I was born, at 2 I was put into Dr Barnardo's Homes. What they called care, we refer to it as physical and sexual abuse. I drifted into crime, and spent 35 years in prison. In spite of the system, I reformed and rehabilitated myself with the support of some within and outside of the system. I was transformed from a law breaker into a law-maker. I am firmly committed to prisoners rights, and am a campaigner for penal reform. I live in a 3 bedroom terrace house within a cul-de-sac, and have a dog as a companion. My Latvian friend keeps invading my space and telling me I need a wife. She does keep the house clean and tidy, but loves my dog and calls him her boyfriend...
Recently, Viking FM have asked for advice and reports for the news on radio on Criminal Justice issues. In addition, I used to write regularly for Inside Time the National newspaper for prisoners.

Calum Carr mental health appeal

Justice For Madeleine - Let Her Speak Out campaign

The aim of the campaign as it says on the tin is just that. We have heard from the McCanns with their spin doctor Clarence Mitchell. Its time to put up or shut up from both sides. Madeleine deserves justice not what the McCanns say since 3 May 2007 happened. The McCanns have a conflict of interests, clearing their name of all wrong doing. And saying they want the taker(s) of Madeleine brought to justice. If the McCanns are in anyway involved in Madeleine's disappearance, there is the potential of a conflict of interests. Therefore an independent party should represent Madeleine. We intend to make an application to be joined as an interested party with rights of audience. This has nothing to do with the NF/BNP supporter Anthony Bennett and his so-called Madeleine Foundation.